RMS Application

Dan leaned back against the credenza. "RMS stands for Resource Management System. It is a new application that we are going to develop for use throughout Ferguson and Bardell, including all the branch offices. As I've already said, RMS is both a critical and a highly visible project. In fact, all the employees of the firm are resources that RMS will manage, and RMS will handle the scheduling and time tracking of those employees as well. In other words, every person at Ferguson and Bardell will be able to see and use the results of this team's work. And, since RMS will provide the means we'll use to gather time and billing information, everyone's paycheck will depend on RMS being both effective and stable."

As the significance of the project began to sink in, the room became very quiet. Dan waited a moment and then continued. "Normally, developing such an application would have been handled exclusively by the Chief and his crew. In thinking about the RMS project, though, I decided that it was the perfect project for introducing MSF to Ferguson and Bardell. I think, as you begin to understand the value that MSF can bring to a company, you'll see what I mean.

"Let me make one thing very clear from the beginning: My decision to involve all of you, and to do the RMS project using MSF methods, does not mean that I don't trust the Chief or his team. He and I have already discussed RMS and why I wanted to tackle it this way."

Jane interjected, "But Dan, you said this was a project to develop a new piece of software. How can that involve me? I haven't the slightest clue how to—what was that you called it, Bill?—'crank out code.' I barely know how to record a macro in Word. What good am I to a project that is supposed to write a new time and billing system?"

"I am wondering why you asked me to be part of this team, too," Marta added. "It is true I did some programming in college, but I suspect you are not going to write this application in either GBASIC or Fortran. Therefore, my question is the same as Jane's: What am I doing here?"

"Excellent questions, and certainly understandable," Dan replied. "Let me explain what you both are doing here—indeed, what each of us is doing here—by way of these next few transparencies." And with that, he turned the projector back on.